1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to digital document processing and, more particularly, to a system and method for controlling the processing operations associated with an electronic document, in response to classifying the document content.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the management of documents for large enterprises, there are many reasons to track the flow of documents based upon such criteria as department, subject matter, individual user names, subjects, contracts, and revenue, to name but a few possible examples. It is logical to organize the management process from either the document sources or destinations. However, it is not always convenient for a systems administrator to track a document from the source or destination endpoints. Another logical access point for the management of documents that has not been fully exploited is at printers, copiers, or scanners conventionally used to reproduce these documents.
Conventionally, a paper or electronic document is processed in response to a set of commands that accompany the submission of a document to a printer or copier. For example, a document is fed into a printer and the user selects that number of copies to be made, or the destination of an electronic copy. Although it is known to filter a print job based upon electronic watermarks or passwords associated with the document being printed, there are no provisions for the printing apparatus to select an action based upon the document content.
It would be advantageous if document processes could be controlled in response to the document's content.
It would be advantageous if document management operations could be performed in response to a document's content, in parallel with conventional user-directed processes.
It would be advantageous if the above-mentioned management operations could be performed in parallel with conventional document processing, without the direct interaction of a user.